Self employment grant during the Covid crisis.

[MrGongGong]

Yep. Take for example a self-employed person reaching pension age. He/she cannot survive on a state pension (think Council Tax, Water Bills, Heat and Light, Food, etc, etc) so continues to work, maybe reducing hours a bit. If his/her net profit is marginally less (even 1p less) than his pension income he/she gets nothing. Whereas if he/she had earned £49,999.00 the full grant would be payable. One law for the rich.......

More complications for partnerships

More complications...in fact nothing... if he/she turned the small business into a company and gets paid via dividends.

It's certainly fundamentally flawed

One question is whether those who have companies are "self-employed" ?
I'm not, for one moment, suggesting that these people shouldn't get support.


We have seen the rise of what is really "spurious self-employment" (delivery drivers etc) which is very different indeed from really working for yourself.
Which is simply a way of some companies dodging playing what really are employees properly
BUT, it's also important (and this is very true for many orchestral musicians) to recognise that there are many people who don't want to be "employed" (myself included) even when (and it's a bit of an exception allowed by HMRC) all of their work comes from one place.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's certainly fundamentally flawed

One question is whether those who have companies are "self-employed" ?
I'm not, for one moment, suggesting that these people shouldn't get support.


We have seen the rise of what is really "spurious self-employment" (delivery drivers etc) which is very different indeed from really working for yourself.
Which is simply a way of some companies dodging playing what really are employees properly
BUT, it's also important (and this is very true for many orchestral musicians) to recognise that there are many people who don't want to be "employed" (myself included) even when (and it's a bit of an exception allowed by HMRC) all of their work comes from one place.

One of the problems of foregoing "employee status" consists in isolation and forfeiting the possibilities of strength in numbers when it comes to the mean employer - and they might even be in the majority, given their corporate need to "make ends meet"; another (of going "freelance") is that contractual conditions enforced on any in effect sub-contracted project can outweigh any assumed advantages in taking on the project in the first place. In today's world David wouldn't stand much chance with his slingshot against corporate Goliath. One might even be at the mercy of philistine governments for dependency on any backup.

[MrGongGong]

One of the problems of foregoing "employee status" consists in isolation and forfeiting the possibilities of strength in numbers when it comes to the mean employer - and they might even be in the majority, given their corporate need to "make ends meet"; another (of going "freelance") is that contractual conditions enforced on any in effect sub-contracted project can outweigh any assumed advantages in taking on the project in the first place. In today's world David wouldn't stand much chance with his slingshot against corporate Goliath. One might even be at the mercy of philistine governments for dependency on any backup.

Are you assuming that those of us who are freelance have "employers" ?
and that there "employers" are somehow trying to exploit us ?

Maybe the classic argument about the "means of production" doesn't always apply ?

I don't ever feel "isolated" by being freelance at all, that's one of the things that "evil" social media is very good for.